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Combat by Cadyenie
Originally posted by Arabesque on the Therian Saga Forums Hawkorian Recruit Depot {gravelly-voiced and battle-scarred military instructor wearing impressive armor and carrying a gleaming battle axe in one huge paw} "Awright, ya bunch o'pansies and misfits! Gather 'round! Let's go, I ain't got all day!" The whole bunch of us had just disembarked from the ship between Hope Island and Craneharbor. We were milling about looking at everything with wide eyes and nervous twitches, expecting giant lizards and monstrous trogs to spring up out of nowhere. The glaring and impatient soldier's orders got our attention and we assembled in a raggedy sort of formation in front of him. "Listen up, pups! I'm gonna try an' give ya a bit of an idea about how to fight well enough to live through some o'what you're gonna see here on this side o'the pond. It ain't all ya need to know, but it'll get ya started. There's stuff all over you can study--there's a Forum over there with all the info you could ask for. We got a Guide, hehe...we call it a Game Guide...as if this is gonna be all fun and frolic." The group laughed. His hard and unforgiving stare stopped THAT right away. "There're a bunch o'old-timers, too. Chat with'em, show a little initiative and they MIGHT answer your questions. They ain't any more likely to hold your hand as me, though. Grow a pair, do the studyin' ya need to do and TRY." His icy glare pinned each of us in place, and he began... Basic Instructions (This is only VERY simple stuff. There's lots to learn in this thread (New Player Help) and elsewhere--use all your resources) Your ability to fight in the various dungeons is pretty important, especially early on. Learning your trade and boosting skills in them is vital but your early crafting efforts won't sell for much. You'll either have to make 'consumables', things like blades, wood planks, chisels and so on to sell to other crafters or vendor your stuff to NPCs. In order to get better clothing, armor, weapons, tools and materials you'll need money. The dungeons you'll have access to can provide all of that in varying amounts. Later, you'll need Combat skills (even if you're 'just' a crafter) to have access to some items you'll need to progress to higher skill-sets. Combat 101 (If I knew how, I'd include Screen Shots. I don't, though. :) ) (Screenshots coming) You're in your 1st dungeon and the Combat Screen comes up. On it, you see yourself and any party members you have with you (up to 4 of'em, animal and/or humanoid + you) and the bad guy(s) (as many as 6) you're going to fight. Beneath both sets of characters are 2 lines of icons. For both of these the order of those icons from left to right are Blunt/Pierce/Slash. The top 3 are Offensive values and the bottom 3 are Defensive. If there are 3 or fewer bad critters, YOU will be the target of their attack (usually, but some 'Rare' encounters are sneaky). If there are more than 3, 4/5/6 will attack others of your party. Mouse over the baddies and you'll see their attack/defense stats. Mouse over your party and you'll see yours. You now have options, Attack/Defend/Guard. Here's how that works: Attack Your entire party will be in Defend mode (indicated by the Shield next to'em) until you choose otherwise. You can double-click any single target and the 1st 3 members of your party, (from left to right) will be placed onto 3 circles next to it. The Shields of those 3 will change to Crossed Swords indicating Attack mode. (If your party has fewer than 3 members, only that number will be moved to the target.) You may also drag single members of your party onto a target. This is useful if you have a stronger offensive skill (Blunt/Pierce/Slash) than the target's defense skill in that area. Click Confirm down at the bottom of the screen and Fight is On! (There is an assortment of factors that affect the fight like armor, terrain calculations and other things. If you're interested in more in-depth knowledge, it's time to hit the books. thumbup ) Guard You may also choose to have a party member Guard another member. NOTE: Any member of your party may guard another. It isn't restricted to the "Guard Companion" you'll have an opportunity to recruit a bit later when your Leadership has grown some. To Guard, drag the one chosen to guard onto the icon of the one you want guarded. The Shield next to the one doing the guard task changes to a soldier, indicating Guard mode. The Guard will take damage for the member it protects. NOTE: The player being guarded is still able to Attack a target; just drag'em onto one and lock horns. Defend If you make no decision for a party member, it remains in Defend mode and will not participate in the fight except to defend if attacked. The soldier looked from one scared face to another and roared, "You all got that much straight in your pointy li'l heads?" We nodded and shuffled around, not certain by any means that we knew what was gonna happen in our first fight, but nobody was going to be the one to say that. He rolled his eyes and spit a gob of...something..between my feet. "Go get some grub, play with your *snicker* little sticks an' get your miserable carcasses back here. I'll tell ya a bit about how to grow your fightin' skill when I got y'all in my tender, peace-lovin' embrace again. MOVE!" Hawkorian Recruit Depot "Yo! Get yer cherry arses over here an' school up, li'l pups. Shake it up, we got stuff ta do!" Our instructor had been watching us flail around at one another with our 'little sticks' and the pained grimace on his scarred and ugly mug showed he wasn't too impressed. We gathered around him and settled in for our next class. "Any o'you think to look around our Forum or the Guide, yet? NO!? What in all the Hells are ya waitin' fer? Did ya want an inscribed invitation? Listen, you GOTTA do that or you ain't gonna make it. 'Nuff said." Calling over to some spectators cat-calling and jeering at the crop of cherry adventurers, he got the attention of a couple of Big Guys. "You louts wanna make a few coppers for some o'that Rhumbalar swill ya chug over at the Inn?" Two of them came over and he told'em to watch our gear. "An' if it ain't all here when we return, you two are gonna be BLEEDIN' Rhumbalar. Awright, recruits. Dump your gear here and fall in, we're goin' to the zoo." A rag-tag mob of wide-eyed newbs followed him, some of us attempting to copy his experienced swagger and causing still more hoots of laughter from the watching crowd. "Them Gods-cursed Big Guys ain't worth the swill it takes to hire'em from the CraneHarbor Inn, but if y'all are too timid to adventure on yer own and ya need to bump up your Leadership, they could be worth somethin' to ya." We arrived at an enclosure that held a variety of animals, some of them things we recognized, like some kind of dog and a couple of bears. There were cats with tufted ears and yawning mouths full of sharp teeth. Our eyes got even bigger when we saw some lizard-looking creatures hanging out near a pile of rocks. "Ok, take a knee, listen up and pay attention, ya buncha curs! These here are..." And he began to explain about Combat Companions. Building Your Party (This, also, is VERY simple stuff. If you want to learn more about the various Companions--Combat and/or Skill types--get over to the Game Guide and open the Leadership entry in the Sociability section.) In order to progress through the game and accomplish various things, you'll need to assemble a party of Companions that complement your own skills and interests. These companions will provide you with buffs to skills that can make your progress in Trade, Combat and Land smoother. In the case of the Skilled Companions, they can provide you with characters that can labor to provide you with raw materials so you can devote more of your main character's time to profit and/or advancement. (But that's a different class for another day. :) ) The possible Combat Companions fall into the categories of Humanoid, Animal and, for lack of a better term, Monsters. All of these can help you fight (or guard) in the dungeons, many of'em contribute to your Offense/Defense stats. (I say 'many' because in a very short time you'll have stats that outclass the max possible stats of the lower level companions. They will continue to contribute useful buffs for a while, though.) A bunch of them contribute to Land skills, some contribute to Trade skills, as well. The Monsters are generally quest-related additions and come later in your development. There are prerequisites for hiring most Companions. To take on a Humanoid, and to be able to carry more of'em in your party, you'll need Leadership which provides 1) the ability to recruit and 2) the Authority points to staff'em. For Animals, after you get your 1st one, you'll need to buff Control in order to have more in your group at one time. (Control points increase via the Taming process in a similar way to Authority points being increased through recruiting.) Recruiting most Humanoids, at least in the early going, can be done @ the various Inns in cities. Your Leadership stats determine whether or not you're able to do so. Buff Leadership by A) Hiring folks. The Big Guy in Crane's Inn can be had for the price of some Rhumbulars. B) Get a tabard. Some of them are inexpensive enough to get quickly and may even be drops from dungeons. NOTE: Not EVERY tabard provides a Leadership buff! (At least, I think that's the case. I don't have a specific example, but believe I've run into some that don't.) Look at the stats carefully before buying one. C) Jewelry. You probably already have a Pendant that provides a tiny buff. The higher level ones are expensive, but keep your eyes open, sometimes bargains in the Market pop up. D) Some companions that you'll hire can provide a Leadership buff, as well. Note that hiring is the most efficient way of buffing Leadership (after you've taken the Crane Harbor training), early on. In order to add Animal companions, you'll need the Taming skill from the Fauna Trade. Regardless of your main Trade, Fauna is handy to have. The Hunting and Taming skill-sets are valuable. You'll need food of some sort to recruit animal companions. Berius Woods, Gourin's Farm, Orchard of 1000 Fruits and other places can provide you with vegetable/grain requirements, but you'll need meat for the predators. Hunt and Butcher it, or buy it. The Hunting and Taming entries in the Game Guide's Fauna selection will provide useful information. If you're going after this with some effort, you'll soon find you have no room for more Companions. There is a solution to this and it's going to be vital to your development throughout the game. You need to build a Concession. The Concession is a plot of land you can call your own and use to build lots of things that will speed your progress along. In Hawkoria City you'll be able to find the area where you can buy a Concession. (In Lanfar they are free.) (I'm not gonna just GIVE the location to ya! Poke around some, you'll discover LOTS of useful locations there. thumbup ) When you have one, you can store an unlimited number of items and/or Companions there and you DO NOT need to build anything on it to do so. When companions are stored there (you use the Separate command) you'll free up Authority/Control points so you can continue to recruit other companions. Goretex, our gravel-voiced instructor, bellowed, "An' that's that! Can I make that any clearer fer ya? 'K, ya buncha mommie's girls, get back to yer gear on the double!" Special Situation As we began getting to our feet, Goretex called out, "Ahh, shyte! Almost fergot! C'mere, pups." We gave the grizzled warrior our attention again and he explained, "There's someone y'all need to be on the lookout for. His name's Yraen.I had'im in a recruit bunch a while ago and damn me if he didn't become one hellluva sword swinger! If'n ya ain't gonna do nothin' else, go find him. He used ta toss some bar wench named Maeve around in his bed awhile back. She might know where to find him. She's over in Hawk City, sippin' suds at some Inn or other. I'm here to tell y'all, that boy is handy in a fight!" Spitting on the ground, he went on, O'course, good comes with bad. That whippersnapper's blind as a friggin' cave bat at the beach durin' High Noon. Don't get too close to'im in a fight, he flails around and misses as much as he hits stuff. Smiling, he went on, "But, when he does connect, that pup'll do some damage. If it were me, I'd let him loose, by himself, on the tough dungeon mites ya find and use your crew to gang up on the others. Even if he don't plant'em in the ground, they'll be hurt but good by the time you get to lockin' horns with'em." "NOW, I'm done lookin' at your pathetic carcasses. Get back to the Depot, grab yer gear an' get busy!. Fall Out!" Category:Guides Category:Companions Category:Concession